Beverly's Stamping Beehive

 Have a friend who appreciates the gothic sensibilities? Then dig into your creative spirit and look at the norm through a wonderful, rich and dark prism!  I chose a designer paper with a fab colour set. Next why do butterflies when a moth will be better?  Here Tim Holtz’s Funky Insects die set does the trick. To make it a tad interesting I placed a pocket inside and crafted a ATC which doubled as a coffee gift card holder. A second large tag holds my message. Well crafters, explore your options and enjoy!

  Funky Insects Thinlits Dies (not including bee die shown upper left ) Tim Holtz's Funky Insects are a hoot to play with. I am just playing to discover the million-gazillion ways to colour each bug and not concerned with how to design projects featuring them yet. Here's a tall slimline card, an A2 card and an ATC that l've created so far. To get inspired, you only have to look at the amazing designers that contribute to Tim's Chapter releases such as this year's Chapter 2 release.  To be honest, l was not bothered cutting so many parts for the different insects as l thought l might be....time flew by as l cut batches of the body 'base' and then spent most of my time inking, embossing, painting, etc the wings and body sections. There lies the fun!

A very nice person is helping us out by looking after our cat today and I wanted to give her a nice bright card that literally has 'good vibes'! Actually I had been working on this card this past week in a rather lazy style - and then just in time, my parcel of new craft treats arrived ! I was so thrilled because it's been 7 weeks in the making for its journey to my home,gosh. The word dies are part of Pink Fresh Studio's "Phrase builder Sending die set". This is a great set of 10 word die sets - each one has the shadow die included for a total of 20 die pieces. Great value and really useful words to own. But l wanted a chance to express 'good vibes' and the best way I thought was with vibrant colours! Because what else would you want to send to someone who brought you happy feelings knowing that your precious pet was in good hands! Right? Good vibes all around - to you too !! Thanks for dropping by :) Pink Fresh Studio Phrase builder Sending Dies Stam...

Hi! Its time to make some summer cards again! This year I picked up a multi-media stamp/stencil pack from Michael's and some Distress Oxide inks. The stencils were very large and I love that! Here are two cards with the same wave style stencil and I was really happy at how they both turned out! So get yourself some stencils and have a go! Enjoy 

Hey everyone!   Today I am blogging about the card I made in the middle of the night, lol.  It started with the idea that I wanted to use the bear from Stampin' Up!'s Cookie Cutter bundle set {stamp and punch}.  My intended recipient loves bears and I was dying to do a shabby chic style card, so voila!  Some details: I dyed a piece of white satin ribbon using ink. Ink refills {liquids} are so helpful to create co-ordinating materials for your projects. Soft sponging of paler colours help to frame your main more colourful image. Add more details by layering accents such as my poinsettias and label.   Here is one of the  embossing powders from the Stampendous Fran-tage line called ' Shabby White '. See how bubbly and glittery it is?   There it is - I love doing soft colours paired with white for pretty styled christmas cards!!!  Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday season this year, cheers!

 Here's my trick'or'treat for my daughter! A good book and some chocolates delightfully tucked into this adorable batty treat box!   I found the polka dot cardstock recently and I had just barely enough to make my treat box and I also purchased some black twine, so I was quite happy as I always like to use up my cardstock as much as possible. The thing about our crafty supplies is that they can be abundant at first, then a year or two goes by and that particular pattern is no longer around!  Any rate, a book and chocolate -  a terrific treat for anybody :) Happy Halloween everyone!

Hi Crafters, ... as my previous post showed playing with my inks is a lotta fun! Here's the results of incorporating that fun - beautiful red and white Christmas cards. I love them! Winter Deer Red Inked Cards    Silver embossed antlers    White sparkly embossed oval frame     Supplies  SU! Oval Thinlits  Impression Obsession Deer Dies  White Cardstock  Real Red Ink Refill   Red Cardstock   Ranger Bridal Embossing Powder 

I look like a crime scene from an old episode on CSI! Got playing to create some interesting backgrounds ...          And while I was left with messy finge  rs and palm, I totally loved the process!   The process is to   1) Dribble some ink drops from your source of liquid ink refill bottles onto a non-absorbant surface - I used parchment baking paper.  2) Nearby have  smooth or glossy cardstock. Glossy cardstock would give the most dramatic results but I managed with some regular white cardstock.   3) Next you lay some flexible plastic film (saran wrap) over the ink and using fingertips gently squish the plastic. You're aiming to create flat smooth spots with less ink and wrinkles where the ink can puddle up, and repeat all over... dragging the plastic film and smoothing with your fingertips simultaneously.   Seriously its not rocket science and the more you play at it - the more you...

Hey summer friends!   Today I want to show off my first card using the 'free' stamp set from Creative Stamping Issue 57!  The magazine cost me about $27 Cdn which I admit is steep, but I really, really, really wanted the huge stamp set that came with it!   GO WILD is a safari-style stamp set that contains large wildlife stamps and plenty of accent stamps including one very gorgeous African savanna tree, the acacia! I can't wait to use that one! Plus there are themed greetings....it's all there!  AND there is a mini-ink cube to boot!  Yeah! Along with a magazine that features many examples featuring the included stamp set - so this more than justified the price for me.  I shall be watching for future issues :) I had a hard time choosing which of the animal images to start with but I went with the sweet llama . I started by using Distress inks to create my card base and then stamped it with a leaf stamp in the mini ink cube ....

Sharing coffee with friends is a regular activity for me and I wanted to show my gratitude to a pair of elderly women who make me laugh - they are a fiesty pair and good company.  I used my "Coffee Talk" stamp and die for both cards but gave each individual treatment. I found it very engaging and really enjoyed my crafty efforts.   I was rewarded with some tasty hand-baked cookies, lol!      

I'll claim this project as my first card of summer. I made a swap with my friend and the theme was to use the very last stamp and/or die we purchased! Mine was this cactus embossing folder and clear stamp: a great little bargain I found for $2!     That's my cute little straw pig holding up my two projects. As they have 3D qualities I will explain how I prepped them for mailing. I merely glued foam I cut from makeup sponges, works great!   Another thing was I used up some really old brads and an eyelet from my embellishments. I used alcohol markers to colour white brads!  The embossed mat featuring the cactus is cardstock from DCVW which was sanded. I thought that turned out great! I wanted bright colours and I love how it all turned out. To add a bit of interest, I tied some orange twine across the card top and created tiny banners that can swing about when you shake the card, they make a soft tap sound and it's kind of fun to do, lol! ....

*click on photos for close-up views Welcome everyone to my blog!   As part of the Paper-Garden's 2018 Mother's Day Cards Challenge I have created a card using Paper-Garden's beautiful cardstock  and a few of my favourite dies and techniques.  To see how you can help determine the winners for the challenge, see below.  close-up  Choosing beautiful colours to celebrate Mother's Day was fairly  easy as I always love the combo of pink, green and white!   To make it more fabulous, Paper-Garden's soft shimmering cardstock  really adds that lovely quality you'd want in a card for your Mom!  Look for their Curious Metallics cardstock. The white base of  my card is their sturdy cover weight in Ice Silver. I am a real fan now! I chose to use my Fantasy Floral 3D Die Set from Altenew , and my  Large Lace Faerie Queen (butterfly) die.  I wanted the title MOM to be simple and in s...

Hi crafters.   Today I want to show a trick I like to resort to when I craft up my cards. When I am under no pressure, I will have a craft session where I design 'parts' of a card. It could be making flowers or as I will share today - making card fronts.  As I have my craft supplies laid out, it's quick to make two duplicates.  Ok, I have pulled out a banner stamp and coordinating die set and have chosen my ink colours. I placed each banner stamp on a clear block and set the blocks directly onto the ink pads. These are small banners and it will take time to cover a 4x6 in. card front. The technique is to stamp one card front first and double stamp onto the other card front without re-inking first. Then repeat till you've covered your cardstock.  (Click on pictures for a closer look)     As you can see, I am getting a bright effect on the left card front and an almost pastel effect on the right! Neat! I am not at all wo...

Happy Valentine's d ay ! My entry for this year is a sweet treat box I presented to a nice lady who loves crafting like the rest of us. So inside was stuffed with an assortment of little embellishments to use on her projects and a wee bit of chocolate.  This is the  Mama Elephant's Favor Bag   decorated it with a heart die (retired)and a Martha Stewart tag. Using a different colour for each side of the box just for added kick! I also upcycled some ribbon, why not!   Hope y'all have a lovely day!  

Remembering to have a birthday card ready to go right after the festive holidays is always a bit of a challenge for me. Which is probably why I try to put a really good effort because it's a nice change and you want your first card of the year to go well, right? Here it is then, my first card of 2018!  Ta da! Here in Canada we are in the thick of our winter, and for anyone with a birthday in December, January or February - I thought pairing roses with snowflakes could be both beautiful and a nod to their being children of winter!   Now for some details. The snowflake background was created with Martha Steward Scalloped Snowflake punch. This is one in their class of punches called All Over the Page . These punches have two parts that align with magnets allowing you to punch anywhere over the surface of your paper.  They take a little getting used to and are not something I'd recommend for weak-wristed crafters. While it takes effort, you can really get...

 Here's the reason why I purchased this card die set so that I could make a batch of cards without too much fuss! With the words Merry Christmas blazing across the front - what could be easier?  You could make all the same style or customize each one as I chose to. I think I will purchase those adhesive sheets to cut the detailed words because it takes a bit of effort to glue it in place using regular adhesives, but it is still a nice way to cut through your card list!  One morning I took time to create my embellishments using a variety of little accent pieces and with the aid of my glue gun. Using a glue gun makes quick work of attaching foil-to-foil, foil-to-fabric or other hard to glue materials.  Give it a try!  Die set:Merry Christmas Drop-Ins, 662255 a framelits set by Stephanie Barnard for Sizzix Embellishments from the Dollarama